Tips To Fix Or Prevent Basement Leaks

Having water in your basement is not something anyone wants. We have had our share of basement leaks to fix.

We have struggled with this since we bought our home and have made some strides in the right direction and have some tips to help you figure out what to do to keep your basement dry.

Fix Basement Leaks

Assess the situation – Which area of the basement is getting water.  Easier said than done.  We stood outside many times in the rain watching it fall.  Here are areas we found problems:

• Does it go up and over when it rains?  – is there debris in the eaves-trough, is it getting clogged and over flowing?  Is it big enough?  Bigger houses (like ours) need the commercial size down spout to hold the water flow. You can also get products that can cover your eaves to keep debris out, BUT you will then need to clean those as they might get the debris on them.
• Do you have gutters/eaves trough?  If you don’t have eaves trough, you just have rain running off your roof and straight down next to your house.  If you have a basement, this can seep into your basement.  You can reclaim water into barrels and make sure overflow diverts away from building
• Does the water go far enough away from the house?  when it rains if water is rushing to your house, that is bad.  What you may need is longer down spouts to move the water further away from the house.
• Does water flow correctly – basically does the dirt around your foundation slope towards your house or away from your house?  You want it to slope away from your house, so you may need to regrade it.  Check the ground at the end of your roof line to see if you have an indent on the ground, that indicates that you may need to regrade the ground away from your house.
• Still getting water? Consider doing what we did and run your down spouts into the ground and far far away from the house and then regrade the dirt around the house to be safe.
• Seal it – Another suggestion is to seal the basement walls on the outside and on the inside.  Also seal any cracks you may have in the foundation on the outside (will help keep critters out as well). You may need to hire a professional for this one.  If you take this route, determine if it will help/harm the walls.  Sealing them from allowing water to flow, may cause pressure on the walls.  Consulting a professional on the best option for you may be best if you are considering this solution.

If you find that this is a bigger job than you can handle, call a professional!